Sequester cuts a time bomb for GOP?

Republicans open to letting billions in sequester cuts go through figure they can blame the president if the economy goes south.

But Democrats are betting they can shift that blame right back to the GOP.
They’re so confident, in fact, that they’re already eyeing at least 10 Republican-held seats with strong military connections from Florida to California to target in 2014, after sequester cuts have trickled down to local bases where jobs are lost and voters notice.

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Boehner: Sequester like 'taking a meat ax' to government

POLITICO LIVE: Sequester: Will Obama or Boehner win this round?

“Republicans who are unwilling to compromise, unwilling to find solutions and are responsible for cuts to defense and jobs in their districts are going to find an unwelcome reception from voters,” said Jesse Ferguson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Say sequestration kicks in on March 1: then lawmakers are suddenly in a much different place, reacting to very real reductions in government services the public relies on, as well as a rippling of layoffs in the private sector.

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner both said this week they’d like to avoid sequestration, but they are worlds apart in how to address it and have shown no signs that negotiations will resume to end it. Proposals bouncing around Capitol Hill to delay the cuts have yet to build a critical majority and House and Senate leaders are still gaming out whether votes will come up on any of them.

Meanwhile, key Republicans have been speaking openly for weeks about their willingness to let sequestration take effect, regardless of the political risk they’d face at the ballot box in 2014.

“I’m a lot more concerned about trillion-dollar deficits every year stretching to infinity,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who also added, “That’s obviously a more indirect issue to somebody who’s about to lose their job or has lost their job, and I respect that 100 percent.”

Several polls released since last November’s election show Republicans would get the bulk of the blame if the so-called “fiscal cliff” hits, whether it be tax hikes that nearly hit on New Year's Day or the threat of a government default absent a raise in borrowing authority. If sequestration happens, House Democrats say they’ll have tangible proof that the GOP is a dysfunctional party that can’t even tie its own shoelaces on something as essential to its long-standing tradition as the Pentagon budget.

The DCCC is circulating a list of Republican members who represent districts where defense and domestic cuts could cause lasting damage and help turn the seats from red to blue, or at least force the GOP to spend money it didn’t plan on spending.

A top target is two-term Rep. Scott Rigell, whose Hampton Roads, Va., district is home to the world’s largest naval base and a defense contracting community so big it’s known as “Pentagon South.”